


I'm Here

by Selkiessong



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: ASOIAF Rare Pair Week, Alternate Universe-Canon Divergent, Angst and Feels, Bookverse-Crypt Scene, Bookverse-Wildfire, Cersei is a Manipulative Liar, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, FIx It, Hopeful Ending, Post S7, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Sad and Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-05-29 13:15:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15073934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selkiessong/pseuds/Selkiessong
Summary: Written for the ASoIaF Rare Pairs Week Day Three, "I thought you were a dream come true."Gifted to Ashleyfanfic in response to what would really get to Cersei and the quote "Two damaged people trying to heal each other is love".





	I'm Here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ashleyfanfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleyfanfic/gifts).



> Important: While Jaime does at times associate Daenerys with Aerys it's meant to reflect his mental/emotional state and not as a statement of objective fact. Remember, Westeros has no therapists.

   Sansa felt like screaming as she listened to the discussion swirl around her. It was probably ungrateful of her, but she wanted Daenerys and her army of mouths to feed gone. She wished her well in her quest for the Iron Throne, but she wished her well anywhere else. Preferably somewhere with enough animals to feed two growing dragons. And while Cersei was a definite threat, the idea of asking Jaime to help struck a wrong note. It was a little too close to Aerys demanding Jaime to bring him his father’s head.

   “You can’t!”

    “Why? What does she need to do to convince you? At what point will you not defend her? She threatened to kill you, she lied to you about her pregnancy, what else does she have to do?”

   “It’s not about Cersei. If you set the Red Keep on fire, you’ll burn half the city.”

   There was a ringing silence, and then-

   “Half the city?” Daenerys asked, “I think you’re overestimating dragon fire, it burns hot, but it doesn’t spread that far.”

   “It’s what’s underneath the Red Keep,” Sansa finally said, unobtrusively slipping her hand under the table. “The Old King had wildfire placed in the cellars. If something falls the wrong way,” she shrugged as she felt Jaime’s hand tighten on hers almost to the point of pain, “In the Sept of Baelor, with all the chaos around the Faith Militant, someone must have gone looking around the old records and been careless with a flame. “

   “Gods,” Tyrion whispered. “I thought it was all talk, that it was only being planned…you mean that he actually had caches of wildfire in place.”

“Him, his pet pyromancers,” Jaime said dully. It’s going to be a terrible night, one where he will sleep fitfully if at all. “The Red Keep. The Sept. Flea Bottom. All seven gates. Cellars and storehouses all over King’s Landing.”

   “And you didn’t think to tell anyone until now?” And she loves Jon, she really does, but-

   “Who would he tell? My father? He wouldn’t believe a word he said. His father? He had Elia and her children slaughtered. Robert Baratheon? He laughed at the bodies. Who should have been told of the means to kill and entire city? It was safe so long as it was undisturbed.”

   “I suppose I can add this to the list of what needs taking care of,” Daenerys said dryly before Tyrion could say anything. “Wonderful. I suppose you’ll have to coax her out in the open then.”

    There is still something about this that isn’t quite right, something Sansa had questioned Jon about in private, namely _why_ everyone was convinced that Cersei would do anything but kill Jaime on sight. She had the Mountain. She never forgot a slight. What would possibly induce her to treat with her twin and former lover, her prize possession who slipped her net?

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   She knew what to expect that night, and when Jaime started to thrash in his sleep she didn’t shake him awake, just ran her fingers through his hair and hummed until he woke up on his own.

   “ ‘M sorry,” he whispered, wrapping himself around her. She felt safe being held after a nightmare. He felt safe if he held her. “It’s just I look at her and I see her father and her mother, and the bodies on the floor, and your uncle and your grandfather, and-“

   “You shouldn’t need to go,” she couldn’t help herself, “you hate King’s Landing more than I do if that’s even possible.”

   “I’ve been a pawn of kings before. I was made a Kingsguard to spite my father, I was kept a Kingsguard to show that Robert could do as he wished, I was dismissed when I’d served my purpose, what’s one more? I have something to come back to this time at least.”

   “I could come with you?” She has nightmares where she is trapped inside the Red Keep while Joffery, Baelish, and Ramsey chase her, but if it would ever be necessary for her to travel to King’s Landing she would want a friend.

   “Absolutely not.” Jaime arms tightened around her, a tell of his when he needed to reassure himself that she was real, that they were both safe. “I need to know you’re safe, that you’re out of Cersei’s reach.  I failed so many times.” _Rhaella_ , _Elia,_ the names hovered between them, _Rhaenys, Aegon, Myrcella, Tommen_. As she herself does, he keeps his dead close, a torment and a comfort.

   “I’m safe, Jaime,” she wiggled until they were face-to-face, something that’s starting to be a little difficult. “We’re safe. All of us.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   It was cold. He was being held in the courtyard in a what amounts to a lean-to. Just tall enough to stand in, seven steps long and three steps wide, the only improvement over his time as a prisoner is the small bucket in the corner. No need for chains; there were Unsullied constantly standing guard. Not that he ever thought to run. His muscles were stiff from disuse and cold.

   Cersei it seemed would have the last laugh after all. She had found the one argument that would both win Daenerys’s sympathy and condemn him. How, she had asked boldly, could the Queen believe anything Jaime said? How could she take a rapist’s words over his accuser’s, she asked tearfully, only to smile at Jaime when Daenerys had swept from the room. And he knew. He was hers until the end of time. He was hers to possess, to use, to pawn because this was how she loved. She had shattered him one last time.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Time had lost any meaning. _Not by fire, not by fire._ No matter how many times he tried to will himself into freezing to death, his body had other ideas; and he would find himself curled around himself to keep warm in defiance of his conscious mind. _Inside, inside, go away inside._

   “Jaime?” Dreams of Sansa are his favorite.  “Jaime, are you with me?”

   “Yes,” he slurred which is the only right answer.  He isn’t of course, she’s miles away; but it’s his dream.

   “Stay awake.” How ridiculous. He’s already sleeping, how was he supposed to stay awake? He’s warmer now anyway, there’s a soft weight across him like a heavy fur cloak.  Sansa and warmth. The best kind of dream.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   “Bring her in.” Daenerys was beside herself with fury, the dragon inside roaring for the world to end in ash and blood. Cersei had played her for a fool. If her good-brother had not sent Sansa down in all haste… “follow me.”

    They walked through the passages Varys had helpfully pointed out, Cersei silent behind her as though they are walking to her execution. She’ll probably wish they were.

   “I’m extending a full pardon to your brother,” she stated as they drew to a halt behind a hidden peephole. “I’m returning what you took from him, Casterly Rock, everything.”

   “He has no heirs,” Cersei spat, “and no possibility of having any.”

    “Take a look.” She knew what Cersei will see; Jaime and Sansa sleeping wrapped around each other, more intimately than sex.  “She’s quite devoted, traveling all this way while with child.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   _It had to be a dream_ , Jaime thought, keeping his eyes closed. He had dreamt Sansa came and took him out of his little shack with the news of the Queen’s pardon. Sansa couldn’t be here. It was a fanciful flourish his mind had added to reality, something to make him feel safe enough to sleep.

   “Jaime.” Lavender. His eyes shot open to see Sansa lying awake next to him. Sansa kept sprigs of lavender in her clothes. She was here, she was real, and he realized too late that he was all but crushing her. “Shh, I’m here.”

   “I thought you were a dream come true.” His face was buried between her breasts, craving any touch, any scent of her skin. “I thought you were only a dream.”

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments :)
> 
> I posted this a while ago but I’m adding it after seeing s8


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